News

Top three RWC bands confirmed

November 30 2008

The top three bands for the Rugby World Cup 2011 pool allocation draw, based on the IRB world rankings as of November 30, have been confirmed following matches on Saturday.

For the first time the IRB rankings will be used to seed the 12 pre-qualified teams from RWC 2007 into bands for the draw, which takes place in London at 3pm on Monday, December 1.

As in RWC 2007, there will be four pools of five teams in RWC 2011.

The teams in the top three bands are:

Band 1: New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, Argentina.

Band 2: Wales, England, France, Ireland.

Band 3: Scotland, Fiji, Italy, Tonga.

The final two positions in each pool will be allocated to the eight qualifying places still available for RWC 2011. The banding of these eight teams is as follows:

Band 4: Americas 1, Europe 1, Europe 2, Oceania 1 Band 5: Africa 1, Americas 2, Asia 1, Play Off place.

The teams in each band will be drawn randomly into one of the four pools.

The Draw will be announced late on Monday.

Rankings changes following Saturday's matches. England's 32-6 defeat against New Zealand means that they drop to sixth in the latest rankings.

Had England defeated New Zealand, they would have moved above Argentina into fourth, and into the top band of teams for the pool allocation draw.

Wales will move up to fifth in the rankings, thanks to their 21-18 win over Australia.

Had they beaten Australia by more than 15 points, Wales could have moved into fourth and the top RWC Draw band, at the expense of Argentina.